Lori Austin Read Online Free Page A

morning jackets were woefully out of place on this tiny farm at the base of the Shenandoah Valley, but he had nothing else.
    The baby continued to howl. Seth could bear the noise no longer and strode down the hall to her room. Ella was nowhere in sight.
    Odd. She’d seemed very attached to the baby last night. Watching her hold the child had touched Seth as he couldn’t recall being touched before. What would it be like to be held in someone’s arms as if you were cherished and adored unconditionally?
    Seth had never experienced such love. He wouldn’t experience it with Ella Fontaine, either. She loathed him.
    Not that he blamed her. He was sure she had her reasons, reasons he probably did not want to hear. Women like Ella loved with their whole hearts, which meant they hated with their whole hearts, too.
    It was his misfortune to be drawn to her. Not Ella’s fault that the generous curves outlined by the sheen of the moon had haunted him, making him dream of something other than death for a change. How long had it been since he’d had a woman? He couldn’t recall, which was the
only
reason he’d found himself imagining things he had no business imagining.
    The crying continued and Seth glanced into the baby’s crib—such as it was—an old apple crate fashioned into a tiny bed. Gaby saw him and increased the volume of her wails. He was reminded of certain battles when the Rebels howled so loudly the Union lines trembled. He’d never heard anything like the Rebel yell—until now.
    “Uh—um. Shh.” He patted her head. She stopped wailing, squinted at him, then drew in a long, deep breath.
    “Uh-oh,” Seth murmured.
    She released that breath on a shriek of such fury the house seemed to rattle. Without thought, Seth scooped Gaby into his arms, as he’d seen Ella do the night before, and settled her against his shoulder.
    She was soaked from tip to toe. The scent of urine wafted over his face, even as warmth seeped through his new jacket and into his clean shirt. But she stopped crying, so Seth was loathe to peel her away.
    “Now what?” he asked.
    The baby merely snuggled closer, rubbing her wet body all over the front of his clothes.
    “You gotta change ’er, then feed ’er.”
    Seth spun around to find Cal leaning in the doorway. The kid was too skinny, his pants too short. His long, thin feet were dirty. He appeared both younger and older than twelve, perched between a boy and a man. Seth was surprised Cal hadn’t run off to war. Nearly everyone else had.
    “Where’s Ella?” he asked.
    “Gone.”
    “Gone?” Seth repeated, dumbly.
    “Yeah. She said you sent her on home.” The boy’s lips tightened mulishly. “Said we should mind you and our manners.”
    From his expression, Cal didn’t plan on doing either one.
    “You know how to change her?”
    “Do. But won’t. You wanna be our keeper so bad, be it.”
    “Why do you keep calling me your keeper?”
    “That’s what Ella said.”
    Unease pricked at Seth’s spine. Why would Ella call him a keeper, as if the children were animals? He didn’t like that one bit.
    “I’m your guardian,” he said. “Your father and I were friends, and he wanted me to take care of you. Didn’t he ever mention Seth Torrance?”
    “All the time.”
    Seth smiled gently. “He trusted me. Can’t you?”
    “Nope. Just ’cause Pa trusted the enemy don’t mean I have to. We don’t need you. We don’t want you.”
    “You have no choice.”
    The boy lifted, then lowered one bony shoulder. “That’s nothin’ new to me.”
    Cal strolled out, then clomped back down the stairs. Interesting that he’d approached with all the stealth of a Rebel sniper, yet couldn’t seem to return the same way.
    Seth knew very little about children and even less about babies. But he could learn. Why he didn’t just hire a nanny, a housekeeper and a governess, instruct that the bills be sent to him, and hightail it back to Boston immediately, Seth wasn’t sure. He’d